[Nicksyb]

Hi

Does anyone produce a brouchure/catalogue for off-line sales?

I have been thinking and discussing with myself about producing a small catalogue of my items for a while now. I suppose I'm thinking people would prefer to sit down with a cup of tea etc and read a catalogue rather than try and look at a whole website for something they may be interested in.

So what do you guy's think, do you think it would be worthwhile?

[An Oasis]

As long as you have good quality images, e.g. high res then it is a goer.

[Indizine]

The hard bit is finding those people because you only want to be giving brochures to your target market so I would work out how you will find those people to be able to give them the catalogue.

I'd be more inclined to trial with a few friends, a party-plan basis, and have a small number of brochures printed, again as a trial, and see what works. If the products are reasonably-priced i.e. £5 -£20 people could even buy on the night.

I can just see it now..... "Book your own Spellbinder party and receive a free ManSpell!" (or whatever name, but I would have something catchy).

[admagic]

Originally Posted by Nicksyb

Hi

Does anyone produce a brouchure/catalogue for off-line sales?

I have been thinking and discussing with myself about producing a small catalogue of my items for a while now. I suppose I'm thinking people would prefer to sit down with a cup of tea etc and read a catalogue rather than try and look at a whole website for something they may be interested in.

So what do you guy's think, do you think it would be worthwhile?

Nickysb,

Dont think you can answer that question in isolation.

It is not a question as to whether a catalogue has value...it is more a question of whether a catalogue would give you the best marketing return you can get for a set sum of money - and that is how I would view it.

I agree with the poster that said, good quality photography and presentation is essential. For that reason...a brochure can get expensive.

And you are probably looking at four figures in cost not three....

Now consider....lets suppose that is (finger in the air) £1500 for the brochure and distribution costs bring it up to £2000

for that same sum of money £2000 ( for the sake of argument) on ppc, thats 10000-30000 clicks...with a decent freebie and video signup that could be 2000-5000 sign ups on your list.....depending of course assuming your freebie is downloadable not mailed.

And that list (by conventional wisdom) is worth £1000 per month recurring revenue........if you promote offers once a week/2 weeks and get 1% response.. thats 20 orders at £20 every 2 weeks form the list

Question is, how what is your brochure worth in sales?

You will find it hard to say -

And the NAFF thing about brochures is you cant change the offers, or prices that easy.

All finger in the air.

I much prefer proactive specific offer based direct marketing in every form, to reactive stuff like brochures.

For one thing you can test it.

The beauty of ppc is, you can turn it off after £100 if it is not working.
A brochure is all or nothing.
What I am saying is compare the options, and brochures often turn out badly.


PS...like indis party plan idea, but it is more having a bag full of products and order forms that matter for that???

[Poppy Design]

Hi Nicky

I design ecommerce sites for a living so of course would be expected to say to people - do it online!

However personally and although I do a lot of shopping online, I still really like a good quality paper brochure/catalogue that I can sit down anywhere and flick through.
If it is clothing then I really prefer a printed brochure and the same would be said for gifts.
However if say I am buying dog food then online is ideal and I really would have no use for a printed brochure for this type of product.

Again as mentioned previously printed brochures can be expensive and will outdate quickly.
A brochure would be good if you have a good database of repeat clients.

I used to work for a small whisky company and each year we did a Xmas leaflet/mailshot - it took weeks to stuff them all into envelopes but the orders really came flooding in with sales up 50%+
We also did e-newsletters but never got that same response.

Joanne

[Dotwhack]

I too love flicking through catalogues. You may be able to reduce costs by being able to piggy-back on someone elses distribution i.e. I receive Bettawear catalogues and Avon catalogues throguh my door on a regular basis.

Not sure there'll be much cross-over between target markets on spell products & bettawear but still, there might be something you can get involved in elsewhere.

Is thats a wicth or spell magazine?

Product despatch is another way of getting your catalogues in front of people. For example when a mail order company sends out a parcel you quite often get a load of thrid party leaflets/catalogues included. Again it's all down to the target market really.

[neildigital]

I would be happy to produce 1-5-10-20 brochures from artwork supplied by you as pdf.
For very little, so you can test the market

Neil

[fee]

yes i think a brochure in your line of business would be great............

also i love indis idea of party plan.........a girlie night of witchy tales and spells and exciting products.........

[Nicksyb]

After being provided some of my competitors brochures I have realised that I can produce these myself and so far my first attempt is rather good even if I do say so myself

To start with I am going to only print these out when someone requests one, that way if something changes it easily dealt with.

Thank you everyone for you help, advice and thoughts. And Witchy nights sound great and something I have put on my "for the future" list